


Isolated Incidents

by mysterioussinkhole



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Coma Jon, Forcing people to call you “Captain”, Freaky stuff’s afoot, Gen, Loneliness, My aesthetic is Martin getting angry, depression tw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-08
Updated: 2018-11-08
Packaged: 2019-08-20 11:37:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16555034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysterioussinkhole/pseuds/mysterioussinkhole
Summary: Case #0180104, Statement of Martin Blackwood, H... Interim Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London, regarding erm... how shall I put this? Regarding the, uh— the effects of our shift in management. Statement begins.





	Isolated Incidents

*Recorder clicks on*

MARTIN: *Long exhale. There’s a palpable pause as he thinks through what to say.*

MARTIN: Case #0180104, Statement of Martin Blackwood, H... Interim Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London, regarding erm... how shall I put this? Regarding the, uh— the effects of our shift in management. Statement begins.  
I know you’re not really supposed to speak ill of your boss, especially when they can most likely hear you, but it’s gotten too bad to just ignore it. It’s like... Captain Lukas isn’t awful. He’s better than any of my previous bosses. It’s the effect his presence has had around the Archives that’s been troubling. The weird stuff didn’t start happening right when we got back from our “leave of absence”, but I could feel the difference when I first walked into the Archives. It was small, but definitely there; the feeling like there’s too much air, because no one else is breathing it. We’re already pretty removed from everyone else in the Institute down here. I honestly wouldn’t have noticed it right away if it weren’t for those few weeks off we had. I’d spent most of it alone in my flat, reading or writing, that sort of thing. I finally watched Stranger Things. *Tiny, bitter little laugh.* And I, uh... I was at the hospital quite often. You can only spend so much time not talking to other people before you start going a bit mad. I thought that when I came back it would be better, if I just got out of my own head. Melanie, Basira, and I had never been the closest of friends, but at least there would be somebody around. When I got down to the Archives, even though the lights were turned on and I could tell someone had been moving things around, it felt exactly the same as being alone anywhere else. There’s this thing I get when I’m by myself, I don’t really know if it’s just a me thing, but I feel... untethered. Like the world outside my field of view isn’t actually there. I’m just floating in a little bubble, self-contained. It usually fades away as I talk to other people, but... even when Basira came out from one of the rows of shelves and started asking how my “holiday” had been, it still felt fake. The best thing I could compare it to would be talking to an NPC in a video game. It took her literally waving her hand in front of my face before I snapped out of it. I tried to apologize, say my mind had wandered off, when she said, “So you feel it too?”  
I remember nodding. We decided to wait for Melanie and come up with some sort of strategy for moving forward. Neither of us said it, but I could tell we were both hoping Melanie would make things better. She has a way of filling up the room she’s in and making you feel like you’re involved in whatever she’s doing that seemed like it would be nice right about then. But Melanie wasn’t... she was different. I suppose we all are by now. It took so much for us just to look at each other. She has seen me at some of my worst moments and it’s hard to talk to someone after they’ve seen the parts of you that you try so hard to hide. We just sort of sat around a desk Tim had pushed into a corner ages ago so he “didn’t have to deal with us” and looked over the files and tapes Basira had picked out. It was everything we had on Peter Lukas. I was just about to put a tape in the spare player, when he came down the stairs. He asked to speak with me in Jon’s office. I tried to protest and get him to talk to all of us but he wasn’t having it.  
“Just you,” He said, and the sensation of being cut off from everything else was coming back. I had this visceral feeling that being in a closed space with him was a very bad idea, but he was smiling and being friendly. What else could I do?  
To paraphrase, he told me he was glad to be working here, he knows the transition must be strange, etc. etc. and that I was taking over as the Head Archivist while Jon was... what was it he said? “Indisposed”. I mean, it made sense. I had the most experience, I’d worked at the Institute for nearly twelve years, and apparently I was the closest thing Jon had to a friend. It was a lot to take in, and I tried to explain that Jon would get better eventually, but all I could do was talk him down to adding “Interim” to the title. Apparently, Elias had told him it should be the first order of business. God... Even in jail he still tries to manipulate us. You know over this past holiday break I got an envelope full of statements delivered to me? Ugh. *pause* Oh, and this was the first meeting where he insisted I call him “Captain”.  
For the next month or so, things were fairly normal. All of us did statements, though I made a point of always doing the bulk of them. It might seem futile by now but I didn’t want Basira and Melanie to be any more caught up in all this than they already were. I know there’s no way out for me. No use dooming anyone else. There was still that isolated feeling, though. The Archives have always been massive but they started to look cavernous. Like you could wander around in them and never find another living soul.  
The first odd incident I can really remember was in August, I think? Melanie and I were going over some police reports in Jon’s office when Basira opened the door, looked straight at us, left, and started calling for us as she walked down the hall. We went out to check on her and she nearly jumped out of her skin when Melanie grabbed her shoulder. She said that no one was in the office when she’d looked. Her eyes were so wide. She’d been sure we’d left her by herself down there, and she hadn’t even heard us saying her name until Melanie touched her. And it wasn’t long before stuff like that started happening all the time. Melanie stood in front of one shelf for an hour because she was convinced we’d been “taken” and she was afraid that if she moved she’d be next. I once missed seven phone calls because I could barely hear the ringing, and when I did pick it up there was no voice on the other end.  
It was definitely weird but... We were all in such a bad place at that point. Basira was still looking for Daisy, Melanie was angry all the time for no reason and at no one, and I was— I was depressed. Clinically, I mean. It was a struggle to find a reason to get out of bed in the morning and even more of a struggle to do anything more intensive than reading. What I’m saying is that none of us were in a state to properly address what was going on. From our perspective it could very well have been our own minds messing with us.  
It wasn’t until November when it really got bad. I was working on deciphering Jon’s notes one night. Jon has this system of connecting different statements, trying to use the details to track the activities of the powers and their followers. He even has a map and a timeline. There are two problems though: 1) He doesn’t have a notebook or file he keeps them in, they’re just written on whatever piece of paper was nearest and strewn all over the room and 2) His handwriting is just dreadful. I’ve spent hours trying to track down and make sense of it all. That night I stayed late going over something on the Isolation he’d written on a pamphlet for voter registration. Someone must have handed it to him on the street. *Sad laugh. He misses him so goddamn much.* It’s not uncommon for me to be one of the last people in the building nowadays, but that night... There was a man waiting for the elevator. I came up next to him and pressed the up button. He didn’t say anything. I tried to make awkward small talk, but he just stared straight ahead. When the door dinged open he didn’t move. I held the open button, waiting for him to get on but he still wasn’t moving. I realized he’d just been standing in front of the elevator without having pressed the button to go up. His eyes felt lifeless as they stared right through me, unblinking. I let the door go, and tried to breathe as I got up to the lobby. The bubble was closing in on me. When the door opened again I wanted to cry. There were people all over but none of them were moving. They stood straight up, completely still all over the room. Rosie was standing at her desk. Melanie and Basira were stopped next to each other just in front of the main entrance. Non-player characters caught in a glitch. I was surrounded by people and completely alone.  
The only thing I could think to do was find Captain Lukas. I had to step around a few people, but his office door was open and the light was on. He hadn’t changed it much from Elias’s tenure except for a painting he’d hung on a side wall. At first I thought it was just blank with a dark line in the center. Throughout the time I was in there my eyes kept being drawn to it, and I realized the line was a figure in the middle of nothing. I— I tried to yell at him. Ask why he was doing this to us. All he did was smile at me and say, “It would be you, wouldn’t it,” and he got up and left the room, shutting the door behind him.  
I ran out into the hall after him but there was no one in sight, not even the statue people that stood there before. The lobby was the same, and as big as the room is, my chest tightened like the walls were closing in around me. The doors were locked. I banged on them for a good hour or so, but no one was going to magically appear to save me. At that point I was just too tired to look for spare keys, and I had a feeling there wouldn’t be any. So I slept on one of the benches. I dreamt... This isn’t exactly relevant to the statement but it feels important. I dreamt I saw Jon. He wasn’t like normal, all grumbly and awkward, he was curled up in a ball and crying. And he was watching something like it was impossible to look away. I couldn’t see what he was looking at, but I knew in that dream logic way that I needed to get his attention. I said his name. Just as his head started to turn Basira woke me up. The face she was making reminded me of how we’d look at Jon when he got into one of his paranoid rambles he didn’t mean to vocalize. She always got in early so she could leave earlier. I waited until Melanie walked through the door to drag them both downstairs, told them what happened, and they said nothing like that happened to them as far as they could remember. We were all shaken by it so we made a plan. We’ve been sticking to it ever since.  
~ We always wait to walk down together and leave at the same time, so we never just assume someone’s sleeping or working late.  
~ We play music all day so if we can’t hear it anymore we know something is off. We actually rotate days of who gets to pick.  
~ We always have to have at least one other person in eyesight.  
I can see the two of them through the office window right now. We’ve done everything short of tying ourselves together. There have still been... incidents, but we’ve learned to deal with them. I’m actually a lot better friends with them now. Nothing like mutual suffering to bond over. *Strained laugh that slowly peters out. Then a long, exhausted sigh.* It’s been rough. I was alone again during the holiday break. My mum wouldn’t even let me visit. Nothing feels right. I— I’m still drifting away. I wish...  
God, I wish Jon were here. Not that I want him to suffer or anything, but having him around just makes me feel more stable. Like nothing is that frightening if we find enough answers. I want to just... be with him, you know? Have him harassing me about some research or doing that thing where he starts reading something out loud and everyone goes silent because his voice has this way of saying, “Listen to me.” *pause* I visit him sometimes; in the hospital. He’s still alive, at least... I need him to be ok. I...  
*There’s another pause, and something in him shifts.*  
I keep having that dream where I’m so close to getting his attention and I know it’s you that’s doing it. *A small amount of static interference begins and slowly builds as he continues.* You’re holding him out in front of me. It’s cruel. I don’t even— I don’t even know what you want from me! I take everything you throw at me. I dealt with Elias. But I can’t... Do you think it helps? Seeing him every night? It’s driving me mad! *weird, breathless laughing* All that power and you can’t even save him? You can’t save your Archivist?! *Static is increasing to a concerning level* How is this supposed to help?! You think I want this?! *Static reaches its crescendo* I WANT YOU TO BRING HIM BACK GODDAMNIT!!! *pauses, before spluttering on* And why me?! What the hell do you want from me?

*The sound of Martin kicking something in frustration and there’s the noise of some papers falling over. He snaps out of his anger to start straightening it up, making a soft, exasperated noise. Until he sees the paper he’s holding. His breath audibly catches.*

MARTIN: What’s this? No. No, that can’t... The... “The message could not have been clearer: ‘Friend’.” Wha— What does— That can’t... I have to sit down.

*A phone rings.*  
*He clears his throat and composes himself before picking it up.*

MARTIN: Hello?

GEORGIE *faint but still audible*: Martin you have to get down here right now it’s really important you have to—

MARTIN: Georgie? What’s going—?

GEORGIE: —They said it was impossible for him to recover but I told them weird shit happens around him all the—

MARTIN: Wait, wait slow down. What’s going on?

GEORGIE: He’s back. They called me because I’m still his emergency contact. Martin, Jon just woke up. I’m on my way to the hospital right now.

MARTIN: I’m coming. *Mad scrambling as he hangs up and grabs a few things.* MELANIE! BASIRA!

DISTANT VOICE: Martin?!

MARTIN: JON’S AWAKE! Oh my god. I— Thank you. Thank you so much. Statement ends.

*Recorder clicks off*

**Author's Note:**

> I took a stab at a theoretical first episode of season 4 :)


End file.
